[Tutorial] Automating Release to Warehouse process through Wave Template configuration

Introduction

Currently many companies resort to manually choosing which shipments need to be added to a wave we are about to process, which is slow and error prone, as the user needs to check up on each of the shipments, understand where it is headed, what types of items are on it, which mode of delivery is used, etc.

Today I would like to show a demo example of how to configure wave templates, as to allow a more optimal distribution of orders, based on, say, delivery mode, or some other cut-off criteria. Automatically, without any user interaction.

Disclaimer

I will not be talking about Automatic release of sales/transfer orders to warehouse in this post. We'll discuss that at a later point in time. Today it is only about making sure certain orders are grouped on a single wave automatically, based on defined criteria, so that they can be processed in the warehouse at the same time. This of course comes hand in hand with automatic release, which would enable a pretty much automatic operation for certain orders

Wave template configuration

Imagine that I would like to accumulate and then process all 2-day shipping orders at once, every second day, so I have the picking done before 4 pm that day when the UPS (or other 3PL) truck arrives to pick them up.

For these orders I want to pick as fast as possible, and the inventory is typically already at the locations and does not need special packaging, so I will not include replenishment and containerization steps into it, and will configure my work template to take the goods straight to the bay doors. 

I would also like to limit the number of shipments on each of the waves to 10, so as to not overwhelm my workers. Instead, I'll release another wave later in the day if necessary.

Generally, I'd like the wave to be processed automatically as soon as 10 shipments have accumulated, but throughout the day my Wave planner might process another wave, depending on the situation.

Here's how my wave template would look for this case:

2 day shipping wave template configuration for warehouse 24

Here's how I have configured the corresponding query:

Note. No need to add any filters on Site or Warehouse, as these will be automatically added.

I want to only look at shipments for Sales orders, and only those that have a 2 DAY shipping mode of delivery. Pretty simple. If I wanted, I could make this much more granular, by adding additional table joins and adding filters on them.

2 day shipping wave template query

Sales orders

Now let's create a couple sales orders, set the Mode of delivery correctly, reserve the inventory and release the orders to the warehouse.

Note. The field that is transferred to the shipment is taken from one of two:

• Mode field on the sales order, if the Mode of delivery is not filled in.
• Mode set on the Carrier associated with the specified Mode of delivery.

Mode of delivery specified on Sales order 000910

I only added one simple line for the example, on both sales orders.

Sales line for Sales order 000910

Release to warehouse

When we release the first order to the warehouse, we will create a new shipment, which will have the correct Mode of delivery. We will then proceed to search for a wave template that matches it, based on Site, Warehouse, as well as the defined query. Our newly created wave template should succeed here.

We will not however be able to find an existing Wave in status Created, that would match the Site and Warehouse for the shipment that is also using the same wave template. Which means we will go and create a new Wave. 

Note. A new wave is created because of the Wave template setting Automate wave creation

When we release the second order to the warehouse though, we will find the wave created above, and because the conditions for adding to the same wave are met, and the wave template has Assign to open waves marked as Yes, we will add the shipment to the found wave instead of creating a new one.

Here's how the resulting wave looks:

Wave created based on the two sales orders

FAQ

Q: What if there is more than one wave in status Created, that was created based on the "right" wave template, and is for the same Site and Warehouse as the newly created shipment? Which wave will the shipment get assigned to?
A: The first of the waves that matches all of the criteria which also does not exceed the thresholds.

Q: Can I use fields directly from the sales order in the wave template query?
A: Yes, but you will need to join to get them. The right way would be to first join the load lines for the shipment, then the order lines related to the load lines, and then the sales order headers related to the sales lines. (Not directly from the shipment, even thought that will work just fine for certain businesses that always have only 1 shipment per 1 order)

Conclusion

As you can see, setting up a wave template that will group multiple shipments and create a new wave if necessary is relatively simple - you just need to get a few of the specifics correct in the setup, and then everything will work like a charm.

In one of the next posts we will combine this configuration with automatic release of sales orders, to achieve full automation of sales order release process, where no user interaction is necessary at all past the sales order creation and confirmation step.

Tutorial: Dealing with rush orders or the skill of "Ship now" in Dynamics AX

Introduction

Quite often, situations happen in supply chain which require the warehouse to handle rush orders, meaning that they need to ship the same day, if not immediately.
At the same time, the normal levels of data accuracy are still expected, meaning workers cannot just ship the goods without simultaneously registering everything in AX, as to not allow the data to get out of sync with the real world.

But, even though this situation is quite common, Microsoft Dynamics AX does not handle it quite that well. Specifically, once the work is created, you can't ship the load until after all work has been executed, including any intermediary stages (quality inspection, packing, etc.)

An alternative scenario is when delivers to a customer are done on a regular basis, using a third party logistics provider like UPS for deliveries, and per agreement their transportation vehicles depart from our docks at a particular point in the day. In such cases the workers may get instructions (or make the decision on their own if experienced) to skip certain picks and just ship what has already been picked, just to make the cutoff time. The remaining goods would be then shipped with the next planned delivery.

Today I would like to show one of the possible ways of achieving better results in the above scenarios with the out-of-the-box functionality in Microsoft Dynamics AX by showing two features:

• Skipping non-mandatory work lines
• Short picking without impact to the inventory but with load line qty reduced

Walk-through

I have created the following sales order in AX, which turned out to be a rush order, so I need to avoid the staging step I usually go through when picking such items, and instead, take the items directly to the bay door, where the truck is already waiting.

Note. For the purpose of the demo, I only have 2 items and no prior picks completed.

Rush sales order

The sales order has already been released and the work looks as below:

Open Work order

Now, since I want to rush this order, I am going to skip the staging step. How do I do that?
Well, for this to work, the corresponding lines in the work template used to create this work must have been set up as optional (Mandatory flag was not set)
Luckily, that was the case for this order, so I can move on to step #2, actually skipping these lines.

That is done from the Load by selecting the "Skip non-mandatory work" button, as shown below:

Load in Waved status with "Skip non-mandatory work" button

Note. You can only skip non-mandatory work on an order in Open status right now

Now the work looks like below. Note how the work class has been updated to enable the initial picker to load the goods as well

Open work order, where staging lines are skipped

OK, so let's execute this work now. We'll use a standard mobile device menu item with user directed work execution method.

The worker picks the first item from the picking area very close to the outbound dock, as shown below.

Initial pick instruction from a Picking area

However, the next pick he's instructed to make is in the bulk area, as nothing was left in the Pick area and the item has not been replenished yet.
Walking over to that area takes a whole 30 minutes, and John knows that he needs this order to ship in 10, so he makes the decision (or is called by the warehouse manager with instructions) to not ship this item now, but do it the next day or whatever the agreement is with the customer.

For this, he's going to short pick this item. Since we are not going to pick any items, he'll enter the quantity of 0, and select the reason for short picking - Ship Now, which we'll talk about in a minute.

Short pick with reason = Ship Now

After confirming the short pick, he'll immediately be asked to put the items he did pick (in our example just 1) to the BAYDOOR location, since we skipped the other lines

Put directly to Baydoor

As a result, the work looks like below:

Work in status "Closed"

All work lines have been Closed, and as you can see the remaining quantity is 0 for both picks, and for one of them the work quantity is also 0, since that was the line we short picked.

Now, hold on, you might say. I do not want to short pick these items - does that not tell the system that the items are actually not there, and in many cases adjust them out or create cycle counting work? 

Not in this case. See the setup I have done for the Ship Now work exception below:

Short pick work exception "Ship Now"

As you can see, I have not selected to create cycle counting work or adjust these items out. All I selected was to Automatically decrement shipment or load

What that means is that on-hand will not be impacted in any way, however the quantity on the respective load line will be decreased, essentially taking this item off the load. Note that the source document line (in this case, sales order) is not impacted, since the customer still expects those goods. We do not currently support also reducing the quantity on the sales order. You will have to use the "Deliver remainder" function from the sales order line explicitly to achieve that.

So, let's take a quick look at the load now.

Load in status "Loaded", where 1 line has 0 qty

As you can see, the status of the load has been updated to Loaded, meaning all the goods planned for this load are on board. 

You can read more about the various statuses of the Load/Shipment in my previous blog post:

http://kashperuk.blogspot.dk/2014/10/tutorial-high-level-overview-of-entity.html

 That means we can now ship this load, as shown below:

Load in status "Shipped"

Hope this will help some of you avoid unnecessary customizations

Let me know if you have any questions.

Walkthrough: Manual creation of Load packing structure in Warehouse management, Dynamics AX

Introduction

In the current version of Dynamics AX we have the ability to receive advanced shipping notes (ASNs) from vendors, store the corresponding shipment information, and then use this information to make receiving processes more efficient. Receiving an ASN is currently only available for products and warehouses that are enabled for advanced warehouse management processes (the so-called WHS-items and warehouses).

You can learn about importing inbound ASN files by following this link, where in my blog post I described that process in detail. 

Here we will walk through an example of manually registering the ASN information in the system. 

This could for example be used, if we are unable to import a specific ASN file format, having receiving an advance shipping note from the vendor. Or, if we want to rely on this functionality to “build-up” a pallet to be received, without actually having EDI document exchange with the vendor.

Here's a link to the video recording on YouTube.

Result

If you follow with the above walk-through, here is how the Load packing structure should look:

Resulting Load packing structure

Note

One other thing I did not pay much attention to were the UOM used for the lines, having interchangeably used 'ea' and 'pcs'.

Thanks for watching!

Tutorial: High level overview of entity statuses in the new Warehouse management solution

I’ve seen a number of questions on the community and yammer groups asking about the statuses for Loads, Work, etc, where people were not sure what that means. I dug up this document with a brief description of all the possible statuses for Loads, shipments, Waves and Work in the new solution.
Hope you guys find it helpful, as I did at some point.

Load

• Open: Load has been created, but no other warehousing processes have been executed on the load. Some or all load lines are not part of a shipment.
• Posted: Load has been released to warehouse; related load lines have been assigned to shipments. These shipments may or may not be on a wave. If on a wave, the wave has not been executed.
• Waved: Shipments tied to the load have been assigned to a wave, and the wave was executed. Any work that was created through the waving process has not been started.
• In Process: Work tied to the load has started being executed, but does not meet the qualifications for an “In Packing” or “Loaded” status (see below).
• In Packing: Work has been created for the entire quantity of load lines. All work has been put down to the manual pack station.
• Loaded: Work has been created for the entire quantity of load lines. If not using a packing flow, all work has been put to a final shipping “baydoor” location. If using packing, all containers have been closed (All quantity tied to the load is picked against the appropriate sales/transfer orders).
• Shipped: Load has been ship confirmed.
• Received: For inbound loads, product receipt has been run for all quantity tied to the load.

Shipment (similar to load)

• Open: Shipment has been created, but no other warehousing processes have been executed on the shipment.
• Waved: Shipment has been assigned to a wave, and the wave has been executed. Any work that was created through the waving process has not been started.
• In Process: Work tied to the shipment has started being executed, but does not meet the qualifications for an “In Packing” or “Loaded” status (see below).
• In Packing: Work has been created for the entire quantity of load lines associated with shipment. All work has been put down to the manual pack station.
• Loaded: Work has been created for the entire quantity of load lines associated with shipment. If not using a packing flow, all work has been put to a “baydoor” location. If using packing, all containers have been closed (All quantity tied to the load is picked against the appropriate sales/transfer orders).
• Shipped: Shipment has been ship confirmed.
• Received: For inbound shipments, product receipt has been run for all quantity tied to the shipment.

Wave

• Created: Wave has been created. The wave may or may not have shipments assigned to it, but it has not yet been executed.
• Executing: The wave is in the process of being executed. (Useful status for long running waves)
• Held: The wave has finished executing, but has yet to be released. Any work that was created during the execution process is frozen, preventing it from being started until the wave is released.
• Released: Wave has been released. Any work tied to the wave is unfrozen and able to be executed.
• Picked: All work tied to a wave has been completed.

Work (Applies to both work header records and work detail lines)

• Open: Work or work line has been created, but not started by a worker.
• In Process: Worker has started work or work line, but not completed either.
• Pending Review: Specific to cycle count work header only. Occurs when worker counts incorrect quantity or dimensions, but does not have the rights to automatically adjust inventory.
• Skipped: Applies to work lines only. Status is applied for non-mandatory work lines when 'Skip non-mandatory work' option is used for a selected load/shipment.
• Closed: Work or work line has been completed.
• Cancelled: Work or work line has been cancelled.
• Combined: Applies to work header only. Occurs when executing the “Pick & Pack” RF flow which combines multiple work units into a single one.